Robert Eugene Byrne
Number of games in database: 895
Years covered: 1943 to 2000
Last FIDE rating: 2434
Highest rating achieved in database: 2560Overall record: +278 -160 =452 (56.6%)*
* Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
5 exhibition games, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

Robert Eugene Byrne was born in New York on April 20, 1928. He was inspired to learn chess at the age of eight after seeing chess players in the local park.

Awarded the IM title in 1952, Byrne earned his Grandmaster title in 1964 and two years later shared first place at the United States Open with Pal Benko.
The 1972 US Championship served as an interzonal qualifying tournament, and Byrne after tying for first place with Samuel Reshevsky and Lubomir Kavalek, won the three man play off to advance to the Leningrad Interzonal (1973). (1)

Editor for the New York Times weekly chess column from 1972 until his retirement in 2006, Robert Byrne also attained eminence as a highly respected chess writer, culminating in his 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from The Chess Journalists of America.

andrewjsacks: <FSR> In the L.A. area, we have seen a similar sorry phenomenon. The L.A. Times chess column was run excellently by IM Jack Peters for years (after GM Jim Tarjan declined the offered post). A couple of years ago, Peters lost the column and it is now a syndicated piece each week, saving the Times the salary of Peters for a small fraction of the cost to them, and virtually no local news, and poor in international chess news, and is, more broadly, a sad commentary on the decline of the newspaper business because of all the online factors.

FSR: <andrewsjacks> My aunt, who is a law professor at UCLA, sent me some of Jack Peters' columns over the years. He was an excellent columnist. Ditto with Kavalek, who used to write for the Washington Post. It's sad what's happening to newspapers.

perfidious: With Kavalek out at the Post, does anyone write for them now?

<FSR> and <andrew>: I'll sign that-print media in general have been in decline for about ten years now, with the advertising side of things taking a beating and serving as the impetus in a vicious cycle.

HeMateMe: Was R. Byrne a lifelong smoker, like his late brother Donald Byrne? I saw a photo of Robert B. smoking, and it looked fairly current. Of course every smoker doesn't get cancer but it can't help your health. Donald Byrne died young. he was a chain smoker.

Eduardo Bermudez: Very interesting the discussion about the couple of male sibling who are the strongest all time in chess? I would like to mention another couple: the Bolbochan brothers, they could be above Byrne brothers because, if you see chessmetrics they were 13 and 18 of the world at his best and, the Byrne brothers were : 11 and 38. Other side, Is clear the advantage for the Lasker brothers first and seventh in the world at his best !!

Petrosianic: Just to be clear, you're talking bout Emanuel and Berthold here, not Emanuel and Edward. (Ed Lasker was only distantly related).

Yeah, you're right. Berthold Lasker does show him peaking at #7, but he played VERY little, for a very short period of time, almost exclusively in Berlin. A lot of people don't even know he existed. I wouldn't think of the Laskers as a brother team on a par with the Byrnes or even the Bolbochans.

TheFocus: <Robert Byrne was a pillar of US chess. In the middle of his career he switched from playing 1.d4 to 1.e4 which was tantamount to the driver of a Ford switching to a racing car. This, however, helped him to get closer to the top of the chess world> - Anthony Saidy.

NOTE: You need to pick a username and password to post a reply.
Getting your account takes less than a minute, totally anonymous,
and 100% free--plus, it
entitles you to features otherwise unavailable.
Pick your username now and join the chessgames community!
If you already have an account, you should
login now.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.

No spamming, advertising, or duplicating posts.

No personal attacks against other members.

Nothing in violation of United States law.

Don't post personal information of members.

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform an administrator.

NOTE: Keep all discussion on the topic of this page.
This forum is for this specific player and nothing else. If you want to discuss chess in general, or
this site, you might try the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages
posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.